Evan Longoria hit two home runs, the second to give Tampa a playoff spot as the Rays beat the Yankees 8-7 in 12 innings. Tampa overcame a 7-0 deficit with six runs in the 8th and a game-tying homer in the 9th from Dan Johnson. The Yankees will head home to face the Tigers and Justin Verlander in the ALDS while their hated rival, the Red Sox, will simply head home.
Ironically it was 70 years ago Wednesday that Ted Williams decided to play both ends of a doubleheader even though doing so risked his chance to hit .400. Williams entered the day hitting .3995, which would have rounded up to .400, but he chose to play and went 5-for-8 to hit .406, the last player to hit at that level. Jose Reyes has apparently never heard of Ted Williams. In a fierce contest for the NL batting title, Reyes laid down a bunt single in his first at bat and then was lifted from the game at his own request. Never mind the fans who had paid their money to see Reyes in his potentially last game as a Met, didn't he owe it to Ryan Braun to make the batting race a fair fight? No matter, the Mets ended the season with a 3-0 win and Jose Reyes got his batting title- asterisk unfortunately not included.
